Walking towards the front of the castle, he hears the soft sounds of footsteps on the nearby stone steps. Glancing up, he spots her descending, "We move to battle... please... for your safety stay within the walls..." she stayed silent as she moved past him following the men out to the fields. His hand reaches out to catch her arm as she moves past him, his head tilting a bit at her seeming to ignore him. "Did you not hear me...? Please wait for us to return within the walls where you'll be safe..." She looked up to him her eyes a dull color blankly looking at him like she worried about nothing. As he holds her arm still, his head lowers and shakes slightly, "I know you feel it too... today holds a foreboding air... winds of change blow... please... for your safety stay here." As he finishes speaking, he releases her arm and begins to walk past her, the large castle gates opening slowly, the armies of his kingdom gathered outside the walls in rows and columns. She followed behind him stepping in the mud and puddles making her way out not understanding what he said. As he walks between the rows of men towards the front, he looks side to side to see that every man was prepared. Taking note of all the prepared faces, seeing no fear in the eyes of his well trained troops. The sounds of footsteps following behind him causes his eyes to fall to the ground, "You are coming with us then?" She stays silent marching along as if she had no mind or will to think.
As he reaches the front of the army, he waves over a peasant that was holding the reigns of a horse of the purest white. Mounting the steed, he looks down to the man, "Fetch and prepare another horse for battle, our guest will ride by my side into combat so ready it well yet with haste." She stopped beside him her feet covered in the thick mud shifting around in her dress striking the horse in the left hind leg standing still as the horse began to buck. Yanking back firmly on the reigns, the male's eyes widen a bit, grip tightening as he dug his heels into the steed's flanks, "Whoa!" As the horse begins to slowly become eased, his right hand reaches to stroke its mane, eyes looking back towards her, "What manner of action is that...? Is there something wrong...?" As he speaks, the peasant returns with a dark haired horse adorned with silver armor of the finest quality, bringing it towards the woman. The girl began to walk back from him growling a bit just like she had been the first day she was brought to him.
Steadying his horse fully, he dismounts, handing the reigns to the same man that had brought the horse for Kagome to ride. Walking towards her slowly, he removes the crimson helmet from his head and tucks it under his left arm, "Come now... if you're going to ride with us to save your comrades we must mount and ride now..." Her eyes were dark and cold growling loudly as took off into the woods her claws out ready to attack. Watching her take off with such speed, he quickly mounts back upon his steed, "Form up and prepare to move on the enemy. I will join you when I have retrieved the girl... you know what is to be done, may fate guide those with honor to true victory." This said, he looks to his head general and bows his head before pulling on his helmet and kicking at the flanks of his horse, the pure haired steed immediately going into full trot towards the woods.
Heads into the thicker brush crawling under fallen in trees through the mud her body half covered with the wet mud as she hurried quickly.
halfdemoninuyasha2003: Riding as quickly as he could, the pure white of his steed's form began to collect the deep brown of the mud as it trotted onward at full pace. Eyes blinking against the misting rain, his head turns side to side, still trying to find her, instructing with mere jesters of his hand for the horse to continue following the tracks left by the female in the mud. The tracks stop slowly a few feet a small figure in the mud laying motionless. As the tracks begin to grow closer together, meaning that the one he trailed had slowed down, he dismounts, tying the horse to a nearby branch. Removing his helmet once more, he places it on the horn of his saddle before beginning to follow the trail on foot, eyes falling on the mud soaked form lying before him.
The figure struggled to get up only to fall after trying to run snagged on something that was hidden. Approaching the figure slowly, he steps up to its side, kneeling slowly, the knee guard of his crimson armor sinking into the soft mud as he does. Reaching out with his right arm, he places his hand upon the figures left shoulder and rolls it onto its back. The girl looked up to him weakly her eye color the ones she grew soft on her leg caught in a fox trap blood soaking the mud her body covered head to foot wing to wing. "Why did you run from me...?" he asks as he looks over her form to find the reason for her collapse, soon spotting the trap that had caught her leg. As he awaits her answer, he moves down to her leg and places his hands on the trap, fingers slipping between the teeth of the metallic object and beginning to pull it open.
"...I don't know why I am out here..." Tears roll down from the pain.
As he finally gets the contraption open, he pulls it from her and tosses it away. "You seemed strange back there... I had a horse fetched for you to ride out with us but... something wasn't right... you struck my horse then fled to the woods. As we speak my men move to attack the enemy... I came in search of you."
"...I remember sitting on your bed Sama I don't remember any of the events you just told me now..." She didn't move from the place she fell to hurt to try and run again.
His head tilts a bit, "Strange indeed then... you came out to the field with me and my men... you seemed intent on riding with us... until you ran away from me..." Slowly slipping his arms under her, he lifts her from the mud and starts to walk towards his horse.
"...Sama I don't trust myself... you shouldn't either... " Mud drips off her wings.
"Their control over you is still pushing you to fulfill your mission... that must be the fact... but worry not... that control will end with their demise all too soon..." he speaks to her in a gentle tone as he approaches his horse, standing at it's side so as to sit her in the saddle, lightly laying her over it at first before helping her into a sitting position. Stays still her eyes closed halfway blood dripping down her leg. As he gets her into a sitting position, he moves to her side, looking to her leg. "This demands immediate attention..." he says as he grabs the bottom of his yukata that protruded from the bottom of his chest plate, ripping a long strip from it's hemline. Taking the strip, he begins to wrap it around her leg somewhat tightly, not so much as to cut off circulation, but tightly enough to stop the bleeding after a short amount of time. She looked up to him sadly licking his chin thanking him that way. Looking away a bit as he feels the touch of her tongue on his chin, he finds himself slightly reddening. After dressing her wound, he climbs up onto the horse behind her, his arms moving to either side of her waist to grab the reigns and tug them lightly to instruct the horse to turn around and begin to walk slowly back towards the castle, no words spoken. Her head rested against his chest as she fell asleep in his arms rain starting to come down.
The horses gallop was slow, the rain soft against their skin as the two rode back toward the castle. Feeling her head leaning back against his chest, he looks down softly to see her eyes closed, a slight smile crawling upon his lips as he realized she'd fallen asleep between his arms and against his chest. Tugging back on the horse's reigns a bit, he instructs that it's pace slow more to make the ride gentler to allow for the girl to sleep. The rain hits her face softly the mud rolling down slowly showing her pale complexion.
Arms around her keep close to her form to keep her from shifting and falling from the horse, his eyes remaining locked upon her face, his smile remaining soft and kind. He couldn't seem to break his gaze away from her, something about the way the rain caressed her flesh caused him to find himself lost in her. She stayed still the mud almost faded now against her gentle porcelain face her eyes remaining shut. Slowly his right hand passes the reigns to his left before lifting up and brushing her hair back from her face, fingertips lightly brushing against her skin. Her eyes opened slowly to show her brown hues that shimmered from the light that hit the snow. "Are you alright..." he asks in a gentle tone, his fingers still lightly touching her skin as he looks down into her eyes, his own seeming to smile.
She nodded faintly her eyes soon falling away from his as her eyes closed slowly. "...Its to late... your men have been slain as well as mine.."
"Wh... What did you say...?" he asks a bit bewildered by the girls words, eyes widening as he comes to realization that she had just told him of his men's deaths.
"They are all dead... gone to the other side of this world... my comrades thrown into the fire the youngest first... I am the last of the ones you call miracles..."
"H... how could this happen... my plan of attack... my men were to ambush the armies of mine enemy from the forests... how could they lose... how could they... parish..." his head turning away as he speaks, eyes shaking in anger and sadness.
"...They used my eyes to watch you and the way your men moved..." She sat silent against him not even shedding a tear not even sounding like she really cared.
His head lowering, he pulls back on the reigns of the horse, signaling for it to stop, "If such is the case... then returning to my kingdom will mean certain death for us both... without my armies to defend it... they will surely move to capture my lands..."
"... Your land burns now everything you have is gone..." Her eyes opened slowly. "...The only thing you have now is a traitor who let your people die at the hands of your enemies..."
"It's as I said this morning before leaving the castle walls to lead my men... the winds of change blew this morning... it felt foreboding, yet I still told them to march..." he says, head lowered more, "I suppose it was fate... fate that you ran... that I followed you... fate that I would live to watch my kingdom fall... fate led me away from death..."
"What will you do now you have nothing now." She spoke quietly looking to the fading trees falling silent.
"But you are wrong... I have my life, which I owe to you... for if you had not fled I surely would have met the same fate as my men..."
"..I was under their control if I hadn't have been caught in that fox trap you would have been slain by your own men who were feet away from where you found me..."
"Fate... fate is a cruel mistress... but I suppose I can not complain... I do have my life... as do you have your own... We have our lives... a horse... my sword... and my armor... it's not much... but it's a start toward a new life..."
She shook her head. "I do not have a life... once there is no need they will slay me..."
His hand quickly slides down and cups her chin, holding it so that she looks into his eyes, "What use do they have for you now...? Your mission is complete... do you really think they will waste their time to hunt you down and slay you?"
"My job is not done." Her hands go to his throat pressing hard her eyes a dull color.
His body tenses a bit as her hands close around his throat, feeling his breath being cut off. Closing his eyes slowly, his eyes begin to shake behind their lids. Coughing slightly, he try's to speak, his voice weak with lack of air, "If... it is... my time... then... it is my time..."
She growled at him fiercely. "Fight back damn you!"
His eyes flutter a bit, head and body growing slightly limp as his life faded, "I... cannot... I have no quarrel... with you... my life means nothing..." Coughing, his voice becomes strangulated, "All I have is my life... and you... if my life is in.… Your hands... then... so... be... I..."
"She is no longer available." Her voice was cold no longer feminine sounding. "She is long gone if you wish to save her then fight!" Her face was tense her voice cracking.
His eyes slowly opening look into hers once more, faded in color as his life was drained from him, his hands lifting slowly to grasp lightly at her wrists, "I can't... fight... you... when you... are in her..."
"How weak and pathetic you are!" A smirk slide across her pale lips. "I can kill her after you are dead... she's holding out for a hero so sad she is dieing slowly by the darkness in her heart... She feels comforted by the darkness for some reason... maybe because her hands are strangling you she feels that she is to blame..."
"A hero... I am not... I failed her once... already..." his eyes fading begin to turn to a light blue, his skin becoming cold as his body begins to try to naturally defend itself.
"So you will let her die alone and abandon that is what are doing to her now!"
His skin growing colder begins to grow a pale color, almost as if becoming icy itself, his hands on her wrists quickly growing colder, "Leave her... alone..." His skin growing colder begins to grow a pale color, almost as if becoming icy itself, his hands on her wrists quickly growing colder, "Leave her... alone..." She smirked licking her porcelain fangs. His eyes flutter, as his breathing grows shallow, barely any air entering his lungs causing his body to grow weak, the exhaustion of his energy towards his power making him increasingly weaker, his body shaking. Colder still his flesh grows, crystals of ice growing on his claws, intensifying their sharpness. Her head tilted slowly to the left the snow glittering the fangs before she pierced into his flesh. His eyes widen as far as they can as his flesh is pierced, his blood flowing, warm against his ice-cold skin. Eyes fluttering still, he begins to close his icy touch tighter around her wrists, ice coated claws lightly piercing her flesh. A dark liquid rolled down from her wrist as she licked the cut thoroughly.
"Let her... go..." he groans as he feels her licking at his cold flesh, her warm tongue combined with his own warm blood 'causing that one spot to lose it's icy touch, though his claws still piercing her wrists do not.
"...How tasteful and plentiful your soul is... How do you think your men felt when the demons of lower rank ate not only their flesh but, their souls..." As her voice whispered into his ear showing that she felt no pain.